As you know, here at Mac’s Motor City Garage we take a special interest in Detroit-built cars. Here are three great local makes from last weekend’s 2014 St. John’s Concours. 

Hupmobile, Regal, and Paige: three proud Detroit automotive brands that are barely remembered today, but in their time they were among the city’s best-known makes. At the Motor City’s own St. John’s Concours last Sunday, we encountered these three notable examples.

In its early years, Hupmobile was an industry leader, but by the mid ’30s the Detroit company was near collapse, crippled by the Great Depression and struggling to compete with the major automakers. The last original Hupmobile product from the big plant at Milwaukee and Mt. Elliott was the Aerodynamic line, introduced in 1934 with radical styling by Raymond Loewy and Associates. This 1937 Coupe with distinctive teardrop roofline is owned by Bill Hill of Temperance, Michigan.

The Regal Motor Car Co. operated in Detroit from 1907 to 1920 producing a range of vehicles, but the ones best remembered today are the 1911-1914 Underslung models. So named because the frame rails ran underneath rather than over the axles and running gear, they provided a sleeker profile and lower center of gravity than conventional chassis of the period. This 1914 Regal Underslung Touring, owned by Richard Thams, has spent its entire life in the Detroit area and remains in an impressive unrestored state.

Billed at one time as the world’s fastest car and capable of 100 mph, the Paige Daytona 6-66 Speedster was powered by a  muscular Continental L-head six with full-pressure lubrication and 100 hp. Ed and Judy Schoenthaler own this fabulous 1919 Speedster with intriguing features including a slide-out occasional seat with folding footrest. This example (also shown in the lead photo) reportedly served as the Daytona prototype. In 1928, the Paige-Detroit Motor Car Co. was taken over by the Graham brothers and the products became known as Graham-Paige.